Henning Piezunka  

I am a professor at INSEAD in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprises (and a visiting professor at Wharton and UPenn). I got a Ph.D. from Stanford University, a Master's degree from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a Diplom-Kaufmann from the University of Mannheim. 

Before I became a professor, I co-founded a company. I was the main shareholder and served as its CEO. We scaled the company to 25 employees and customers in 80 countries. After 10 years, in 2008, we decided to transfer the leadership of the company to my successor. The CEO-succession was successful. And as of 2024, the company continues to thrive. My experience as an entrepreneur shapes my (1) research, (2) teaching, and (3) my interest in CEO-successions.

RESEARCH

So much of success is due to relationships. In my research, I strive to understand how to collaborate or compete more effectively. I examine, for example, how the current CEO and their successor can collaborate effectively, how organizations can tap into the knowledge of their employees and customers, or when does healthy competition turn into destructive conflict. My overarching interest lies in understanding what I call relational intelligence: the ability to understand better and leverage relationships.

Studies I have published have won various awards and I have been invited to present my research at prestigious places (e.g., Harvard, MIT, UPenn, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan, London Business School etc.). Fun fact: A lot of the topics I have studied became later the theme of famous TV shows: For example, leadership transition in family businesses (HBO: Succession), competition in chess (Netflix: The Queen's Gambit), or racing in Formula 1 (Netflix: Drive to Survive).

You can learn more about my research here, and find an overview over my research on my Academic CV or on my Google Scholar Profile.

CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUS: FOUNDER- & CEO-SUCCESSION

I am particularly proud of and passionate about my research on Founder- and CEO successions. Beyond being theoretically interesting, I am particularly excited that practitioners have found my research on succession helpful. I don’t think there is a single topic on which I have gotten so many calls - be it from founders, current CEOs, designated successors, or board members. 

Getting the CEO succession right is crucial. You know this from a relay race: You can run as fast as you want, but if you fail to pass the baton to the next runner, you and your company fail. But, getting the CEO succession right is also difficult: a successor needs to be found, the company must be ready for the succession, the current CEO needs to pass on the leadership to the successor, etc. Often, it is unclear who is in charge of managing this process - and the person in charge may have never managed a CEO transition.

Successions in family firms are particularly challenging:  Family dynamics need to be managed. Changes in leadership often imply changes in ownership. Children may need to be coached long before they take over.

I have recently doubled down on conducting research on CEO- successions. So, I am on the lookout for interesting data, cases, collaborators, etc. If Founder— & CEO-succession is on your mind, please do not hesitate to contact me.

TEACHING

I teach at INSEAD and at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. My teaching is focused on Entrepreneurship. You learn how to build a successful and sustainable company (i.e., a company that thrives even when you are eventually not at the helm). You can take my class on New Business Ventures when you study there for your MBA or your Executive MBA. You can also come to INSEAD for one week and take my class. You can sign up here.

I also teach a free 3h-webinar on “Venture Capital, Business Angels, and Startups”. The idea behind the workshop is to make knowledge about startup financing more accessible to a broader audience. It has been attended by more than 25.000 people. There are two people who took it eleven times. I taught it 103 times. You can sign up here.

Webinar: Between the Lines

I also run the INSEAD webinar “Between the Lines” I interview (mostly) business school professors who have written great books; for example, I have interviewed Herminia Ibarra, Erin Meyer, Ethan Mollick, Jennifer Petriglieri, Alex Edmans, Bob Sutton, Katy Milkman and Amy Edmondson. I announce news webinars on LinkedIn. So, if you are interested, just follow me there.

Links